Free Educational Virtual Field Trips Your Kids Will Love

Did you know your kids can go on a field trip right from your living room? Check out this list of free educational virtual field trips!

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Our family loves a good field trip. In fact, if I didn’t have to worry about my teen boys getting into college and filling out their transcripts, we’d go adventuring every day!

There’s a lot to be learned from field trips. While there’s a lot to be learned from taking your kids on a trek through Dinosaur National Monument, where they can actually touch real dinosaur bones that are just sticking out of hills, sometimes a trip just isn’t practical.

Never fear! The internet is a pretty amazing place, and you can find free, educational, virtual field trips right from the comfort of your own home.

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Free Educational Virtual Field Trips Your Kids Will Love

This isn’t an exhaustive list of all the fun places you can tour online, but it will get you and your kids started!

Bible Field Trip Ideas

• Check out this video tour of the tabernacle!

• This is so cool. You and your kids can take a look at Israel–Jerusalem, the coast, Galilee, and the Dead Sea, courtesy of Explore Israel. Imagine standing in these amazing places and turning to see everything around you. Now you can!
• Tour Petra (Sela of the Edomites in the Bible).

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Fun Bible Archaeology Tours (grades 5 and up)

Drive Thru History Holy Land SeriesDrive Thru History® – The Gospels Special EditionDrive Thru History® – Acts to Revelation

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Nature / Science / STEM Field Trip Ideas

• This is pretty fun. Take a stroll through the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
• The San Diego Zoo has a bunch of live animal cams your kids can watch. They’ll be able to see hippo, platypus, penguin, baboon, polar bear, ape, tiger, elephant, and more!
• EarthCam has some neat animal cams from all over the world.
• The Monterrey Bay Aquarium also has live cams. Or, head over to the Georgia Aquarium.
• Your kids can also take dives (via videos) with NOAA. Who doesn’t want to see a shipwreck?
• Take a walk through the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
• I love the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle cam from the American Eagle Foundation. It’s so fun to watch the baby eagles hatch and grow!
• Tour the sections of Mars that the Curiosity rover photographed in a 3D model. (Wait for it to load.)
• The Space Center in Houston has an app allowing kids to tour their facilities.
• Take a tour of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
• The National Parks have virtual tours. Check out Yellowstone and Yosemite.

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History / Archaeology Field Trip Ideas

• Check out artifacts of ancient Egypt from the Smithsonian.
• Want to see the rest of the Ancient Near East? Now you can! The Virtual World Project has tons of sites your family can “tour”–it’s amazing!
• The Smithsonian will also let you check out current history exhibits.
• The National Women’s History Museum has online exhibits. Check out the one on Harriet Tubman.
• Take the kids to Machu Picchu in Peru with YouVisit. Or, go to Vietnam.
• Tour Stonehenge virtually.
• Check out the Taj Mahal.
• Tour France’s Palace of Versailles.
• Again from Google Arts and Culture, here’s a really neat look at 5 heritage sites across the world. The focus is on saving these sites from the climate, but your kids will love seeing other lands and ancient architecture. They can even explore the buildings in 3D models!
• Virtually walk a few sections on the Great Wall of China.

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Fun History Site Tour Videos (grade 5 and up)

Drive Thru History® –Drive Thru History® –

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Art / Literature / Architecture Field Trip Ideas

Note: Not all of the art shown in these tours is going to be appropriate for your family. Use your own discernment.

• The Smithsonian will let you take a look at a lot of their current art collections. Your kids can also color the portraits from the National Portrait Gallery.
• Your kids can check out the amazing Sistine Chapel interactively online. Note: There are a lot of reasons you might want to take a look at Michelangelo’s work before sending your kids to take a look. You may feel it’s inappropriate!
• St. Peter’s Basilica is an amazing work of architecture and art. You can see it through the Vatican.
• Google Arts and Culture has some interesting ways to view the collections of a number of art museums. Your artsy kids will love this!
• Let your kids check out some cool street art–and learn a little geography while they’re at it.
• This is unreal–and amazing. Check out Paris from the deck of the Eiffel Tower!
• Have your kids read the Diary of Anne Frank? They can tour the Anne Frank house where she hid!

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My Field Trip and Travel Journal

The My Field Trip and Travel Journal is a wonderful record of trips for your children, with watercolor artwork and quotes from Christian history throughout.

As your children travel and explore the world around them–or take a fabulous online trip, you’ll want to have a way for them to keep track of where they’ve been and what they’ve seen. The My Field Trip and Travel Journal will help them do just that.

Your kids will keep track of:

• Places They’ve Been
• Places They’d Like to Go
• Mapping Their Journeys
• A Record of Their Trips
• Trip Dates

Your kids will learn:

• To Keep Lists
• About Geography
• Where They Are in the World
• Notetaking Skills
• Basic Memoir Story Writing
• To Plan Trips on the Calendar

 

Your kids will record:

• Where They Went
• The Date of Their Trip
• What They Saw
• Who Went With Them
• Three Things They Learned
• A Story About Their Trip
• Drawings and Photos About Their Trip

This is a wonderful opportunity for your kids to create a permanent record of their travels, and to develop critical thinking and writing skills at the same time.

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